Zurenah Smit accused of “tactical delay” as medical evidence contradicts illness claims

Medical evidence has contradicted the claims of illness by murder accused Zurenah Smit, with prosecutors alleging a “tactical delay” in her high-stakes trial.

Just hours after being discharged from Victoria Hospital and declared medically fit to stand trial, Smit secured a sick note from a separate GP claiming hypertension - a condition her hospital doctor testified was not present during her three-day medical observation.

As submitted by State prosecutor Renee Uys, this was yet another “tactical move to unreasonably delay” the matter in which Smit and her co-accused, Derek Sait, were to commence with the defence case at the Western Cape High Court.  

The High Court has now ordered the GP to testify. 

On Monday, the court ordered that the attending doctor from Victoria Hospital must testify regarding her medical condition.

As court proceedings were set to get under way yesterday morning, Smit entered court with a crutch. Moments after the court went in session, retching could be heard from the dock where she sat. 

At a previous court sitting, moments after the State prosecutor started reading out the charges against her and Sait, Smit collapsed in the dock and had to be wheeled away by emergency services.

Yesterday, Dr Shakeel Hoosain, the physician and specialist in internal medicine who attended to Smit at Victoria Hospital in Wynberg, submitted to the court that he had examined and monitored her from November 16-19th. She was discharged on November 19 at 11.30am. 

According to Dr Hoosain’s testimony, she was discharged and was deemed medically fit. 

He submitted to the court that it “was not to say that she did not display symptoms” while admitted in hospital, but that she was medically fit, discharged unaided, and, according to his diagnosis, she was capable of participating in a criminal trial.

However, the sick certificate which the defence submitted to the court yesterday morning, after she attended a general practitioner on Wednesday and had been discharged from a three-day hospital stay, noted that Smit had hypertension. 

Dr Hoosain submitted that when Smit arrived at the Victoria Hospital on November 16 at 8.44pm, according to the colour-coded triage system, she had, in her own complaint, described to medical personnel what would have been an “orange” code.

However, after a Cape Triage Score, which categorises patients into levels of urgency - red, orange, yellow, green, and blue - Smit’s vital signs were categorised as “green” with a slightly heightened systolic blood pressure reading. 

Dr Hoosain further submitted that during her hospital examination, which included a CT scan, her blood pressure was monitored, and her readings did not raise concern.

However, in contrast to the doctor’s finding, the Belhar-located GP, whom Smit allegedly visited after being discharged from the hospital, booked her off from November 19 until the 28th due to hypertension.  

Dr Hoosain, having perused the new sick certificate, noted that a blood pressure reading was not noted, but it referred to her reading that was made during triage at the Victoria Hospital. 

Dr Hoosain, after being questioned by the court about whether Smit had been discharged with any medication, confirmed that medication was prescribed, but none of it was for hypertension.

Judge Derek Wille issued an order that the GP must testify at court on Monday regarding the diagnosis he had made. 

Smit and Sait’s bail conditions were extended to Monday, where the matter will resume.

Some of the charges the two face, and if sustained, carry a prescribed sentence of life imprisonment. They have both pleaded not guilty to all 16 criminal charges against them. 

In the State's case, a Section 204 witness testified that he was hired as a hitman by Smit, 54, who said she would pay him when she received her inheritance.

The court heard that Smit had allegedly provided the hitman with a firearm, which was previously stolen from the deceased's safe. After drugging Stefan Smit with sleeping tablets, he was shot and killed in what was supposed to be portrayed as a farm robbery/murder. 

The court previously said the accused face a “tsunami of prima facie evidence” against them.

Cape Times